Alternative Caretaking and Family Autonomy: Some Thoughts in Response to Dorothy Roberts

Dorothy Roberts's analysis of the ways in which current kinship foster care arrangements highlight the need for more state support of caregiving and perversely sever familial bonds in the African American community raises important issues for those concerned about caregiving and the legal treatment of families.' In this short response, I will address two of those issues. First, I argue that it is important to understand how state support for caregiving can reify primary caretaker norms and undermine alternative care arrangements that have proven so valuable in communities of color. Second, I suggest that attempts to strengthen family ties must articulate a theory for family autonomy that dispenses with current doctrinal rules linking autonomy to financial independence and parental prerogative.